Angola Cables and Nokia Trial First Direct Optical Fiber Link Between Africa and the USA

Angola Cables and Nokia have announced that they have collaborated to provide a direct optical connection between Africa and North America.Angola Cables Press Release
November 13, 2019

Trial successfully completed in a collaborative effort to provide a direct, low latency Trans-Atlantic path from Luanda to Boca Raton.

AfricaCom, Cape Town, South Africa – Angola Cables and Nokia have announced that they have collaborated to provide a direct optical connection between Africa and North America.

The fiber-optic routing between Sangano in Angola and Boca Raton, Miami in the USA has completed final acceptance trial.

“By optically interconnecting the deployed MONET and South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), Angola Cables is able to further reduce latency between content providers in North America and the rapidly growing data consumption markets in Africa,” says Ângelo Gama, Angola Cables CTO.

Directly connecting the two cable systems through an express optical route – the first ever between Africa and North America – results in reduced latency between the continents and greatly simplifies the turn-up of services.

SACS, owned and managed by Angola Cables, consists of four fiber pairs between Fortaleza, Brazil and Luanda, Angola.  The consortium-owned MONET system connects Fortaleza, Brazil with Boca Raton, Florida.

Latencies on this network show improved performance, with the routing between Luanda, Angola and Miami, Florida having been reduced to 123.4ms, and between Cape Town and Miami to 162ms. Between Johannesburg and Miami, latency has been reduced to just 180ms.

Backhaul operators, ISPs, CDNs and users most notably in the sub-Saharan region of Africa can benefit from vastly improved latencies on existing traffic routings. “For example, the connection between Johannesburg and New York City will be reduced by up to 18% using the direct SACS and MONET fiber optic connection,” notes Gama.

The field trial leveraged Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) platform.  Powered by the Photonic Service Engine coherent digital signal processor, the 1830 PSS successfully transmitted optical wavelengths over 12,635 km directly from Angola to Florida, reducing latency by 30% compared to existing routes.

“We are employing technology that makes more efficient use of the existing subsea cables.  Due to Nokia 1830 PSS technology, an optical connectivity without regenerators can be set up across the SACS and MONET cable systems. This connection will register the highest bitrates and lowest latency between Africa and the USA through direct routing,” so says Carlo Corti, Director of the Optics Business Development, MEA, Nokia. “We are proud to help our customer to establish an optical pathway that can deliver content and information for the benefit of people in Africa and the USA.”

The trial of this direct optical route between Africa and USA was successfully completed on 11 November 2019, and the network is available for commercial use.

ENDS

About Angola Cables

Angola Cables is a multinational company operating in the global ICT marketplace providing tailored connectivity solutions for the wholesale and corporate segments. With a robust subsea cable infrastructure and highly interconnected IP network, Angola Cables offers customers greater access to the world’s largest IXP´s, Tier 1 operators and global content providers.

Through SACS, Monet and WACS submarine cable systems the company directly connects the Americas, Africa, and Europe and has established partnerships to reach Asia. Angola Cables’ manages the Tier III Data Center AngoNAP Fortaleza (Brazil) and the Data Center AngoNAP Luanda (Angola) as well as the PIX facility in Brazil and Angonix – one of the largest Internet Exchange Points (IXP’s) in Africa. The company offers a range of digital services across multiple industries from customised Cloud solutions to digital gaming resources.

For more information, visit our website: www.angolacables.co.ao/en/

 About Nokia

We create the technology to connect the world. We develop and deliver the industry’s only end-to-end portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing that is available globally. Our customers include communications service providers whose combined networks support 6.1 billion subscriptions, as well as enterprises in the private and public sector that use our network portfolio to increase productivity and enrich lives.

Through our research teams, including the world-renowned Nokia Bell Labs, we are leading the world to adopt end-to-end 5G networks that are faster, more secure and capable of revolutionizing lives, economies and societies. Nokia adheres to the highest ethical business standards as we create technology with social purpose, quality and integrity.

For more information, visit our website: www.nokia.com